Intel SR440BX Slot-1 microATX

The Bad

With the amount of praise that the SR440BX just received, it should be prepared to receive a bit of a thrashing.  First of all, the SR440BX is entirely un-overclockable, so don't even plan on taking any processor above its rated frequency on this motherboard, end of discussion.

Although the integrated TNT is a speedy solution now, what happens 6 months down the line when the TNT2 is mainstream and nVidia's upcoming product (NV10) is finally hitting the minds of the die hard gamers?  The SR440BX leaves you with 4 PCI slots to install a PCI graphics adapter, but no replacement AGP slot.  The long term outlook of the SR440BX is not too pleasant. 

The lack of a heatsink on the 443BX North Bridge controller is a tad disappointing, however it seems like there had to be some way to offset the cost of the SR440BX. 

The SR440BX is very picky about what type of SDRAM you stick in it, while AnandTech's Corsair/SEC modules failed to boot, the SEC originals from Memman/Mushkin worked perfectly fine.  Needless to say, you're better off if you check up on the memory compatibility of the motherboard before pursuing a purchase.

USB Compatibility

• Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

• Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

• USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

• USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes

Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com